Lack of Teachers and Desks Represents All Too Familiar Start to the School Year.

After a two month break from school during the Costa Rican summer, school children returned to class today, causing increased traffic in many urban centers in the country. To start the day, Costa Rican President Arias and the Minister of Education symbolically opened the school year at the Liceo Experimental Bilingue de Rio de Jimenez in Guacimo at a special ceremony.

This year nearly 5,000 students less were registered to return to classes than during the same time last year. The number of students returning to class has continued to fall over the past decade, with 2000 registered 34,500 more students than this year. The Ministry of Education said that this trend is due to the decreasing birth rate in the country, where in 1990 each woman had an average of 3.2 children, while in 2008 the average was 1.9 children. A significant decrease in child births was registered seven years ago in 2002, which likely has an affect on this year’s current registration.

Despite the lower number of students entering this year, the Ministry of Education reported that 337 teaching posts have gone unfilled this year. This is due in part to teachers who resigned after receiving their teaching post because they were not happy with the location. Another problem that happens every year is that a large number of teachers tend to declare disability or sick leave the first week of classes.

Half of the positions that need to be filled are at the primary school level, and the rest are related to special materials such as music and the arts. There are also 16 open posts for English teachers. The total number of teachers contracted this year is 54,000.

The country also lacks sufficient infrastructure to attend to all the students, and many have found themselves attending classes in gyms and temporary structures. Despite introducing five new elementary schools, four high schools and one technical high school, a total of 25 schools had to be closed due to sanitation issues.

Such complications are typical of the start to the new school year in Costa Rica and will be attended to throughout the year, thanks in part to a donation of 16,000 desks, and a budget of nearly $70 million.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on February 16th, 2009